Wednesday, June 30, 2010

FRAMINGHAM — GTC Biotherapeutics says it is restructuring and downsizing its operations even as it secures $7 million in debt financing from its French strategic partners.

GTC said yesterday that its chief executive, Geoffrey Cox, and several other senior managers will be leaving the Framingham company, which produces drugs from the milkof genetically engineered animals.

GTC also said 30 full-time workers would be cut from its headquarters and 20 more would be eliminated at its goat farm.

The popularity of Snopes — it attracts 7 million to 8 million unique visitors in an average month — puts the couple in a unique position to evaluate digital society’s attitudes toward accuracy. After 13 years, they seem to have concluded that people are rather cavalier about facts.

“Rumors are a great source of comfort for people,’’ Barbara Mikkelson said.

Then why have I stopped buying a newspaper after decades of patronage?

Snopes is one of a handful of fact-checking sites. Brooks Jackson, director of one of the others, the politically oriented FactCheck.org, says news organizationsshould be doing more of it.

Not their job. That has been left to bloggers by default.

“The news that is not fit to print gets through to people anyway these days, through 24-hour cable gasbags, partisan talk radio hosts and chain e-mails, blogs and Web sites such as WorldNetDaily or Daily Kos,’’ he said in an e-mail message. “What readers need now, we find, are honest referees.’’

Not where I go.

********

Much of the site’s resources is spent on investigating political claims, even though the Mikkelsons say politics is the last subject they want to write about.

For the past few years www.snopes.com has positioned itself, or others have labeled it, as the 'tell-all final word' on any comment, claim and email.

But for several years people tried to find out who exactly was behind snopes.com. Only recently did Wikipedia get to the bottom of it - kinda makes you wonder what they were hiding. Well, finally we know. It is run by a husband and wife team - that's right, no big office of investigators and researchers, no team of lawyers. It's just a mom-and-pop operation that began as a hobby.

David and Barbara Mikkelson in the San Fernando Valley of California started the website about 13 years ago - and they have no formal background or experience in investigative research. After a few years it gained popularity believing it to be unbiased and neutral, but over the past couple of years people started asking questions who was behind it and did they have a selfish motivation? The reason for the questions - or skepticisms - is a result of snopes.com claiming to have the bottom line facts to certain questions or issue when in fact they have been proven wrong. Also, there were criticisms the Mikkelsons were not really investigating and getting to the 'true' bottom of various issues....

Then it has been learned the Mikkelson's are very Democratic (party) and extremely liberal. As we all now know from this presidential election, liberals have a purpose agenda to discredit anything that appears to be conservative. There has been much criticism lately over the internet with people pointing out the Mikkelson's liberalism revealing itself in their website findings. Gee, what a shock?

So, I say this now to everyone who goes to www.snopes.com to get what they think to be the bottom line facts...'proceed with caution.' Take what it says at face value and nothing more. Use it only to lead you to their references where you can link to and read the sources for yourself. Plus, you can always google a subject and do the research yourself. It now seems apparent that's all the Mikkelson's do. After all, I can personally vouch from my own experience for their 'not' fully looking into things."

Like I keep saying, an AGENDA-PUSHING PoS for a newspaper!

And once again a LIAR!!!!

And you know WHY you are getting this SELF-SERVING. AGENDA-PUSHING SLOP from the newspapers, right?

WASHINGTON - The government’s plan to provide fast Internet connections to all Americans will have to include some basic instruction in Web 101, according to a survey....

Of the survey’s respondents, 35 percent do not use broadband at home, including 22 percent of adults who do not use the Internet at all. Of that group, 36 percent say it is too expensive, while 19 percent do not see the Internet as relevant to their lives. Another 22 percent lack what the FCC calls “digital literacy’’ skills. They fall into a category that includes people who are not comfortable with computers or who fear “bad things’’ on the Internet.

Among people who do not use broadband, 65 percent say there is too much pornography and offensive material on the Internet, 57 percent say it is too easy for personal information to be stolen online, and 46 percent say the Internet is too dangerous for children....

I agree on that first one; however, I didn't realize the truth was dangerous.

They grew up in a time when technology meant a wall telephone, a TV set with three channels, and a radio.

Why did life seem so much better then?

Today they’re in the midst of a monumental transition. While some senior citizens are handling the rapid rise of the Internet age well — e-mailing, posting family photos on Facebook, paying bills online — for many it has prompted sheer terror.

Only in NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL ROOMS across the country!!!

People have always faced changes as they age — cable TV, voice mail, call waiting — but no generation has been thrown so much change, so fast, as today’s seniors. Those who’ve adjusted feel confident. Those who’ve resisted feel vulnerable, oblivious to how critical the computer will be to help them stay in touch with friends, order food, or buy prescription drugs as they become more housebound.

If there is a silver lining, it’s this: The next generation of seniors — the baby boomers — will not have to go through this wrenching change. They know how to reboot, IM, and tweet....

But for now, there are a lot of people like Dorothy Larsen, an 86-year-old widow who lives in Framingham. “The future scares me,’’ she said. “I like the old days. I’m scared of computers.’’

So is West Roxbury resident Jane Kennedy, somewhere past 70. “I’m not on the Internet,’’ Kennedy said. “I don’t know that much about it. It seems to get more and more advanced. I don’t even know what they’re talking about: BlackBerries, blueberries.’’

What’s different for seniors today is the pace of change, said Ellen Langer, a Harvard psychology professor who studies aging.

“The reason for the difference is that the speed of communication has increased enormously, and the information is information that has personal relevance,’’ Langer said.

What’s more, the speed with which seniors process information declines as they get older, noted Anne Fabiny, chief of geriatrics at the Cambridge Health Alliance.

“Even if you do have the resources, it takes a lot longer to learn it,’’ she said.

Children and grandchildren of seniors often play large roles in helping out....

Personality matters here. One indicator of how seniors do is how they regard the future. If they’re positive, they’re more apt to make the transition. Those frightened of the future are more apt to be stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits of the past.

You mean, LIKE NEWSPAPERS?

Education and money play a role.

Yeah, and AGE has NOTHING to DO with those!

If you have them, the odds are you will do better making the change to this brave new world. Ann Kneisel, a pistol of an 84-year-old, has seized the day all her life. She’s educated, financially secure, and active. She travels to New York and Europe for opera....

That's not me or your Grandma, kiddo.

This illuminates why senior centers and public libraries are so important.

Yes, the AGENDA-PUSHING ASPECT of the story is finally ILLUMINATED!

There is staff in both places to teach computer skills. To close branch libraries in Boston — a proposal that is under consideration — robs seniors of a place to learn, specialists said....

Eric Newton, vice president of journalism for the Knight Foundation, said the idea is to use “the power of the digital age to help news organizations,’’ as print subscriptions decline and a growing number of readers find their news online.

“The news organizations that are interested in continuing to use all the tools at their disposal, including these new digital tools, are positioning themselves better for the future,’’ he said.

Won't mean a damn thing if you guy are just going to keep telling lies and concealing crimes.

Following the year’s first confirmed sighting of a great white shark in the area, on Stellwagen Bank off Gloucester on Saturdaystate environmental officials have scheduled a press conference today to discuss how sharks will impact may affect life on the shorelines this summer. Fisherman Bruce Sweet told WBZ that his crew put a tag on the 7-foot shark when it swam alongside their boat to eat bait."

It is a sandwich where you have two slices of bread WISH you had some meat....

"FDA urges limited use of antibiotics in meat" by Associated Press | June 29, 2010

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration, responding to public health concerns, is urging meat producers to limit the amount of antibiotics they give animals.

The FDA said antibiotics in meat pose a “serious public health threat’’ because the drugs create antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can infect humans who eat it....

Maybe you should pass on the meat anyway.

The agency said misuse and overuse of the drugs has led to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antibiotics have been given to animals to kill pathogens for more than 50 years, and the FDA acknowledged that the practice has had “tremendous benefits’’ to animal and human health.

Then why the warning? Does anyone even trust the FDA anymore?

Of greater concern, the agency said, is when producers use antibiotics on healthy animals to speed growth and reduce feed costs. The agency is also concerned about antibiotics that are given continuously through feed or water to entire herds or flocks of animals....

A man accused of stabbing two opponents during a brawl between a pair of adult flag football teams has been ordered held on $50,000 bail.

Well, that is one way to get him down.

Justin Farland, 20, who has addresses in Taunton and Fall River, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges including two counts of attempted murder at his arraignment in district court. Authorities allege Farland stabbed the men during a brawl involving as many as 20 players at Teamworks indoor sports facility in Somerset Monday. The victims remain hospitalized but are expected to survive (AP)."

A former teacher at the Maimonides School in Brookline was charged yesterday with indecent assault and battery on a child during the 1970s, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement. The grand jury indictment is the fifth charge for Stanley Z. Levitt, 64, of Philadelphia, a former Brighton resident. The victim in this case, and two others who came forward last fall, were 11-year-old students at the school while Levitt was employed there. Four charges were brought against Levitt last year. The third person came forward recently after reading media reports about that case. Levitt will be arraigned Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court."

FLASHBACK:

"Rabbi accused of sexually assaulting 2 students in the 1970s" by Brian R. Ballou, Globe Staff | September 25, 2009

A rabbi who taught at a Jewish day school in Brookline in the mid-1970s has been indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on charges that he sexually assaulted two students three decades ago.

Rabbi Stanley Zusia Levitt, 63, of Philadelphia is expected to surrender to Suffolk County authorities Oct. 17, the date of his scheduled arraignment on four counts of indecent assault and battery on persons under 14. Prosecutors accuse Levitt of assaulting two preteen boys while he served as a teacher at the Maimonides School in Brookline. School officials could not be reached for comment.

One of his accusers who called the Globe yesterday said that Levitt visited him at Children’s Hospital in May 1975. The alleged victim, now 46, said he was Levitt’s student and about 11 years old when the incident occurred. He said he was recovering from a school accident in which he lost the tip of his finger. The accuser, who requested that his name be withheld, said Levitt visited him on the first night of his two-week hospitalization, and sexually assaulted him in his hospital room. Levitt faces a single count of indecent assault and battery for that incident.

“I want it to be known to protect other children,’’ the accuser said. The alleged victim said he has suffered from depression, stemming from the incident, for most of his adult life....

It was not clear yesterday whether Levitt was listed as a sex offender or continued to teach after leaving Maimonides or where he might have worked after leaving the state....

He was ALLOWED to LEAVE?

If Levitt remained in the state, he would probably not have faced prosecution, because the statute of limitations, which was recently extended from 15 to 27 years, would have expired.

Massachusetts is the SICKEST S***-HOLE in the NATION!!

The alleged incidents occurred more than 30 years ago. But the state has a provision in the statute that essentially stopped the clock when Levitt moved out of Massachusetts.

Every stain has its s*** lining.

In Massachusetts, the other three counts against Levitt stem from a three-day visit another boy made to Levitt’s Chiswick Road home in 1975. Prosecutors accuse Levitt of assaulting the boy on three occasions.

“This was a betrayal of trust in the most awful sense,’’ Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement yesterday. “The evidence suggests that Levitt abused a position of power, respect, and authority to engage in sexual behavior with boys who were too young to resist and too afraid to speak out.’’

Conley learned of the allegations against Levitt after the alleged victim in the Children’s Hospital case contacted authorities last September. An investigation followed that led to a grand jury hearing the case. Levitt was indicted Wednesday.

Scott Curtis, a lawyer in Boston representing Levitt, declined comment on the charges....

Levitt moved to the Philadelphia area in the 1980s.

Just like the Catholics would move their priests, 'eh?

Records from the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania show he was charged there with several similar offenses, including indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children, indecent exposure, and unlawful restraint. He was found not guilty of the exposure and restraint charges, but pleaded no contest, which carries the same weight as a conviction, to indecent assault and corrupting a minor and was sentenced to probation on both offenses.

NEW YORK - It started as a radio program discussion about a taboo subject: child molestation among members of the insular world of Orthodox Jews.

Since he broached the subject on his radio show this summer, says a state assemblyman, dozens of people have come forward with stories about children being molested in the Orthodox community, which strictly follows Jewish law. Dov Hikind said as many as four people a day have come to him during the last three months with painful accounts of secrets often kept for decades, accusing more than 60 individuals.

Hikind said he would eventually consider unmasking accused sexual predators but wants to focus now on setting up a broader framework for addressing the issue. His campaign has set off a firestorm in the Orthodox community, where people are reluctant to involve secular authorities. One rabbi said he received death threats for speaking out....

*************

Studies have found Orthodox Jews account for 10 percent of Jews nationwide, and a far greater share in parts of the New York metro area. Some 37 percent of the more than 516,000 Jews in Brooklyn are Orthodox, according to the UJA-Federation of New York, a Jewish social-service group.

Critics have said sex abuse allegations are sometimes handled quietly in Orthodox rabbinical courts, rather than being reported to authorities. However, some sexual abuse cases involving Orthodox Jewish schools have spilled into the secular legal system in Brooklyn.

In one case, Rabbi Yehuda Kolko was charged with sexually abusing boys at an Orthodox school. He admitted no sexual wrongdoing, but pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor child endangerment charge. Kolko was sentenced to three years of probation and has been dismissed from the school, said his lawyer, Jeffrey Schwartz. The school's lawyer didn't return a telephone call seeking comment.

Six former students are suing the school, saying it covered up Kolko's misdeeds.

NEW YORK - A team of prosecutors, counselors, and religious leaders announced a program yesterday to combat sexual abuse among members of the insular world of Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jews.

The centerpiece of the outreach program, announced yesterday by District Attorney Charles Hynes and leaders from community-based organizations that serve Jewish communities, is a hot line that abuse victims can call andspeak to a "culturally sensitive" social worker.

The establishment of the team, which will focus on child sex abuse, comes partly in response to a discussion on State Assemblyman Dov Hikind's radio show last summer. The show prompted dozens of listeners to come forward with stories of children being molested. Hikind has said that as many as four people a day over a three-month period last year approached him with accounts of secrets often kept for decades.

Notice how the AmeriKan jewspapers are ALWAYS WAILING AWAY on the CATHOLICS!!

The program, called Kol Tzedek, which means voice of justice in Hebrew, will allow callers to remain anonymous until they feel they're ready to identify themselves and meet with a social worker and prosecutors who specialize in sex crimes. The DA's office is prosecuting 16 suspected felony cases of sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn and three misdemeanor cases.

In a second trial, the former coach of a girls’ soccer team has again been found guilty of raping one of his teenage players. Jose Arana was convicted Monday in Brockton Superior Court of raping the girl, then 15, in July 2004 while she was at his house for a sleepover with his daughter. He was acquitted of a charge of assault with intent to rape. Arana, 47, who also was coach at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham, was convicted in 2007, but the Supreme Judicial Court overturned the verdict after ruling that his trial included too many secondhand accounts from witnesses. Arana’s lawyer said there was no physical evidence that an assault occurred. Sentencing is set for today (AP)."

FLASHBACK: And Massachusetts sure holds to its reputation as the most perverted state in the nation:

The state's highest court ordered a new trial yesterday for a former girls high school soccer coach convicted of sexually assaulting two sisters during a sleepover attended by his own children at the family home in Duxbury in 2004.

WTF is WRONG with these STATE SICKOS?!!!!!

The Supreme Judicial Court said Jose M. Arana Jr. did not get a fair trial because Plymouth prosecutors and the trial judge allowed too many witnesses to extensively describe conversations they had with the two alleged victims, even though the talks were not directly linked to the assaults.

WTF? They didn't even talk about the case and the testimony is being tossed?

The court said the conversations violated court rules governing "first complaint" testimony, the term used when a victim of a sexual crime first reports the alleged assault to someone, such as a friend, a relative, or police. The court has recently moved to limit such testimony and yesterday retroactively applied its current thinking to Arana, who was convicted in 2007.

He was convicted of one count of rape of a child with force, one count of assault with attempt to commit rape, two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 years or older, and three counts of giving alcohol to a person under 21. He was acquitted of six charges, including three counts of rape of a child with force....

???????

A former soccer coach for Notre Dame Academy in Hingham and coach of an area travel team, Arana was sentenced to 11 to 17 years in state prison. The court voided his sex crime convictions, but left intact the alcohol convictions....

A federal court in Boston sentenced a Swansea man to 22 1/2 years in prison yesterday, after his conviction of the sexual exploitation of a child and the transportation and possession of child pornography, the US attorney’s office in Boston said. In summer 2003, Joseph Michael Silva, 34, who worked as a horseback riding instructor, persuaded a 15-year-old student to let him photograph her in various sexually explicit poses, US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s office said. After taking the pictures, Silva used them to pose as a 15-year-old girl online.

He sent some of the photos to a 15-year-old boy who knew the victim, the statement said. In 2007, a search warrant of Silva’s bedroom and truck yielded hard drives and cameras bearing numerous pornographic images of children, Ortiz’s office said."

At Kansas, Jayhawk fans who sign up to pay up to $105,000 over 10 years will earn the right to buy guaranteed top seats for football over the next three decades. In return, the seats themselves will stay locked in at 2010 prices.

California fans have even more latitude — 30 years to pay for a half-century’s worth of season football tickets. Like a home mortgage, the long-term deal requires the equivalent of annual interest payments.

The new pricing plans are known as “equity seat rights,’’ and are being pitched as a win-win for fans and teams. Diehard fans can be certain of what they’ll pay to see their favorite team well into the future — and can always sell tickets in the secondary market while taking a tax write-off for donating to a school. Teams can bank on extra revenue and avoid borrowing.

Then why have we been led to believe borrowing is great?

Stadium Capital Financing Group, the Chicago company behind the change, says it has the potential to transform how both college and pro teams court their most loyal fans. They’re confident sports mortgages will overtake the personal seat license, which doesn’t necessarily lock in ticket prices.

The only trick now is convincing fans it’s a good deal.

If it was why would you need convincing?

At Kansas.... the school hopes the sales will not only cover the costs of $34 million in stadium renovations but eventually will raise a total of $200 million — without going into debt or relying on tax dollars.

That would pay for renovations to Allen Fieldhouse, home of the Kansas basketball team, and build a new “Olympic village’’ for the Jayhawk track and field, soccer, and swim teams. Another $40 million would go toward academics.

Yeah, almost forgot why the kid went there. It's a SCHOOL, right?

Still, problems remain. The Gridiron Club’s planned opening for the 2010 season has been delayed since the school has only been able to raise about $5 million of the needed $34 million, said Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director.

The football team’s 2009 performance likely didn’t help. After winning its first five games, the Jayhawks lost seven in a row. The season ended with the resignation of coach Mark Mangino amid allegations of mental and emotional abuse of players.

California has fared far better with what it calls an endowment seating program....

For the big butt people?

The top pricing tier costs between $175,000 and $225,000 and provides University Club members with not only prime seats for the next five decades but also sweeping views of San Francisco Bay. However, when the 6 percent annual administrative fee is rolled in, a University Club seat worth $225,000 will cost the buyer more than twice that much when paid out over 30 years.

That's a deal?

Must be a HELL of a lot of MONEY floating around out there.

None of it coming this way.

Professional teams are also paying close attention. Civic leaders in Sacramento are considering mortgages to generate capital for a new arena for the National Basketball Association’s Sacramento Kings....

WASHINGTON — Car manufacturer Daimler AG will pay $185 million to settle criminal and civil investigations in which the company is accused of paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to officials of at least 22 foreign governments over a decade, two people familiar with the deal said yesterday....

Among the other countries in which Daimler AG allegedly made improper payments were Croatia, Hungary, Ivory Coast, Latvia, Nigeria, Russia, Serbia, Montenegro, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Daimler AG and three of its subsidiaries were charged with conspiracy and with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits improper payments to officials of other countries.

A sex offender who allegedly broke into a Rockland home just before dawn Thursday and was sitting with two young sisters was arrested after the older girl made an excuse to leave the room and went to her father for help.

John Gordon, 22, of Rockland, a registered Level 2 sex offender, who lives less than a third of a mile from the sisters’ home, was arraigned later that day at Hingham District Court, authorities said.

Police responded at 4:18 a.m. on Thursday to a report of an intruder at the home, where they found Gordon engaged in a physical fight with the father of the 6- and 12-year-old girls, said Sergeant James Simpson of the Rockland police.

Gordon allegedly entered the 12-year-old’s room on the basement level through a rear screen door. It was unclear whether the door was left unlocked or Gordon forced his way in. Police said they did not believe he had any relationship with the family.

Gordon allegedly sat on the bed, where the 6-year-old was sleeping, spoke to the 12-year-old, and asked her age before she said she had to use the bathroom and instead went upstairs to alert her father, Simpson said....

Excuse me, readers.

Gordon, who was allegedly under the influence of alcohol, fell asleep on the bed where the 6-year-old was lying, Simpson said....

Time to try prohibition again.

Police arrived and used a Taser while briefly struggling to arrest Gordon, who told police he thought he had entered his grandparents’ home, Simpson said.

Gordon pleaded not guilty to breaking and entering in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon — a sneaker, which he used to kick the father — and resisting arrest, authorities said....

The state’s highest court ruled unanimously yesterday that Middlesex prosecutors can pursue attempted indecent assault and battery charges against former state senator J. James Marzilli.

The Supreme Judicial Court pointed out that while Marzilli is not believed to have actually touched his victims, there is enough evidence for prosecutors to show that he tried to do so....

Marzilli’s attorneys had argued that the criminal case should be dismissed because of a 1974 Appeals Court case that found no support in state law for the prosecution of someone for attempted indecent assault and battery.

But Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall said the 1974 ruling was wrong and will no longer be followed by Massachusetts courts....

Can they do that?

Marzilli, then a Democratic state senator from Arlington, was arrested by Lowell police in 2008 after he allegedly made indecent sexual advances to four women on June 3. He later resigned from office....

Marzilli’s lawyer, Terrence Kennedy of Everett, has said that Marzilli suffers from a major mental illness.

Agreed.

Kennedy said by phone yesterday that he welcomed the SJC ruling because it clears the way for Marzilli to challenge the case before a jury.

Why must lawyers always lie?

“We are pleased to have it resolved so that we can move toward his exoneration,’’ said Kennedy.

SHIRLEY — In stunning allegations that appalled residents and town leaders, authorities accused Town Administrator Kyle J. Keady yesterday of planting a video camera in the ceiling of the women’s restroom in Town Hall, secretly recording conversations in his office, and bugging his assistant and the town accountant.

Keady, a 46-year-old who has been town administrator for seven years, compiled “hundreds, perhaps thousands, of photo images’’ taken with hidden cameras, authorities said. Police said they seized hard drives from Keady’s home and office Monday that contained numerous “close-up photos of various body parts’’ of visitors to his office.

The lurid allegations came to light as Keady was arraigned in Ayer District Court on charges of illegal recording, illegal possession of a recording device, and video recording a person in a state of nudity....

In court records made public yesterday, authorities described the bizarre case as an apparent mix of paranoia and perversion....

They said Keady admitted to placing a recorder in a plant on his female assistant’s desk earlier this month to “educate’’ himself because he did not trust many people. And, authorities said, he confessed to hiding a camera in the women’s bathroom....

Then they are not really allegations, are they?

Why protect a creep?

Prosecutors also accused Keady of breaking into his assistant’s home to photograph her undergarments and using a hidden baby monitor to record the town accountant....

Prosecutors said Keady recorded conversations with selectmen and other town employees with pens equipped with a small camera and a recorder....

Keady was released on $2,500 bail and ordered to stay away from Town Hall and the alleged victims.

He's not locked up?

Dudley Goar, a Concord lawyer who represented Keady at his arraignment, declined to comment on the charges, but said Keady has close ties to the community and readily cooperated with police.

“He’s been a public servant for a long time,’’ he said. Goar said Keady looked “very upset’’ about the charges....

Looks to me like he has been SERVING HIMSELF, the sick f***.

Kyle J. Keady could not be reached for comment. No one answered the door at his home, and his listed phone number had been disconnected....

News of the charges quickly rippled through this small town northwest of Boston....

The town accountant, Bobbi Jo Colburn, declined comment. A knock at the door of Keady’s assistant went unanswered....

A subsequent search of his home, police said, revealed large quantities of pornography, including covert photographs and logs of illicit observations he made of women and co-workers.

A former aide to the fired Lawrence school superintendent paid a $5,000 civil fine yesterday to settle a conflict-of-interest case stemming from his use of a database to conduct unauthorized background checks on more than 400 people, including famous actors, Governor Deval Patrick, and Red Sox player David Ortiz....

Yeah, it is a big deal when important people have their right violated.

Lawrence police Chief John Romero, one of the individuals whose background was checked by Mark Rivera, 33, said his department started investigating Rivera but stopped after determining that Rivera didn’t commit a criminal act....

Rivera’s Andover lawyer, Murat Erkan, said his client acted at the direction of superiors in performing the unauthorized checks.

“There is some indication that much of this was done at the request of individuals who were higher than him, that he conducted those inquiries because he was given a directive,’’ Erkan said by phone yesterday. Erkan refused to say which supervisor or supervisors allegedly gave Rivera the order....

So he just sig heiled and started spying?

And who could have given him the order?

The case was another blow to the Lawrence School Department and to the city, which has endured several scandals in recent months, including embezzlement and fraud charges against Rivera’s boss at the time, former superintendent Wilfredo Laboy.

"This story feels weird for some reason. The information the spies are accused of accessing is information any decent researcher on the internet can find without breaking any laws. This story is either take the heat off of Israel's spies (who did far worse), bash the Russians just when they are starting to dig in their heels regarding Iran, or this "New York financier" is the start of a new political scandal to "clear out the competition" going into 2012. But the same network that softballed both the 2001 spy scandal and the AIPAC spy scandal is hitting this very hard considering the actual "crime"." -- Wake the Flock Up

And the more you read the more it stinks.

"10 in US held as spies for Russia; Cambridge couple arrested in sweep; Allegedly cultivated ties to policymakers" by Shelley Murphy and Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | June 29, 2010

They allegedly used invisible ink, passed coded messages, and made cash deliveries by swapping identical bags while passing one another in the stairwells of train stations.

In a case that conjured images of a seemingly bygone era of international espionage, 10 alleged Russian Federation agents, including a married couple living in Cambridge’s Harvard Square, were arrested Sunday on charges that they infiltrated American society by using stolen identities while on deep-cover assignments to spy on US policy makers.

Yeah, good thing there are no AmeriKan spies running around anymore.

Now they are businessman, professors, hikers, diplomats....

The Cambridge couple, who go by the names of Donald Howard Heathfield and Tracey Lee Ann Foley and identified themselves as Canadians when they arrived in the United States in 1999, were arrested Sunday night by the FBI at their home on Trowbridge Street.

They are among 11 people — including three other married couples in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, and an alleged Russian agent who remains at large — charged in complaints unsealed yesterday in US District Court in Manhattan.

An FBI affidavit said Heathfield, Foley, and the others are agents of the SVR, the foreign intelligence organ of the Russian Federation. An encrypted message indicated that their mission was “to search and develop ties in policymaking circles’’ and send intelligence back to Russia, it stated.

According to the affidavit, Heathfield in 2004 reported to his Russian director that he had made contact with someone who worked for a US government research facility “on issues of strategic planning related to nuclear weapon development.’’ The next year he reported establishing contact with a former high-ranking US national security official.

Oh, yeah? Who?

“I’m absolutely floored,’’ said Paul Hesselschwerdt, president of Global Partners Inc., a Cambridge-based consulting firm where Don Heathfield has worked since 2000 as a sales consultant. “He’s a good person. He’s lived in the United States for a long time. We’re just completely shocked.’’

***********

The arrests served as a reminder that two decades after the end of the Cold War and despite the Obama administration’s declared effort to “reset’’ relations with Moscow, Russia and the United States remain suspicious rivals. Spying between the two countries with the largest nuclear arsenals remains a fact of life, said John E. Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a military information website.

“They’re the only other country on the planet that can wipe out civilization,’’ Pike said. “They are one of the few countries on the planet that could pose a military challenge to us.’’

But while Washington’s intelligence effort centers on Russia’s military secrets, the Kremlin’s spies on US soil are usually after trade secrets.

Yeah, NO PROBLEM with US having OUR GUYS there, right?

Expect the Russians to bust a spy ring during the next few days as a tit-for-tat.

The FBI affidavit said the alleged spies have been under surveillance for a decade by law enforcement officials who tailed them, bugged their conversations, tracked their electronic messages, and conducted surreptitious searches of their property.

That means they DID IT IN SECRET without a warrant and while THEY WERE NOT HOME!

And KNOWN ABOUT 'EM for 10 YEARS and they are JUST BEING UNVEILED NOW?

Oh, STINKOLA!!!!

They are charged with conspiring from the 1990s to the present to serve as agents for a foreign government....

In federal court in Manhattan yesterday, Assistant US Attorney Michael Farbiarz said the charges are “the tip of the iceberg,’’ said Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for the US attorney in New York.

All of their expenses — including housing, utilities, insurance, and educational costs — were covered by the Russian intelligence agency, the FBI said.

At Global Partners in Cambridge, Heathfield was viewed as a sophisticated international sales consultant, fluent in English and French, with a sharp intellect and great people skills. With his impeccable manners and charm, Heathfield capably handled projects at home or overseas, Hesselschwerdt said.

“When we needed him to deliver something, he did it,’’ Hesselschwerdt said.

The Heathfield he knew was French-Canadian, with a mother in Montreal, who had lived in the United States for years. He was so fluent in English he could have been mistaken for an American.

He liked to ski, and one of his children attended George Washington University. The couple donated money to the university during the 2008-09 school year.

The company website describes Heathfield as a “manager, entrepreneur, and scholar’’ focused on global business.

Hesselschwerdt said Heathfield also went to Harvard, and the Harvard Crimson reported that he graduated from the Kennedy School with a master’s in public administration.

The documents unsealed yesterday in New York offered a starkly different portrait of Heathfield and his wife.

In addition to establishing contacts in the US government’s nuclear research and national security networks, they allegedly received a directive from Moscow Center in April 2006 ordering them to gather information on US policy on the use of the Internet by terrorists.

They were also asked to probe US policies in Central Asia, problems with US military policy, and “Western estimation’’ of Russian foreign policy.

So PICKING UP and READING NEWSPAPER is SPYING now?

In May 2006, the couple allegedly sent a message to Moscow focusing on a new CIA boss and the 2008 presidential election.

The investigation appeared to intensify this year as one of the suspects allegedly sat in a Manhattan coffee shop, using a laptop to communicate on a wireless network with another alleged Russian operative who was driving in the vicinity.

Hours after Heathfield and his wife appeared in court yesterday, neighbors on their quiet side street voiced shock.

“I didn’t have a clue about that at all,’’ said Montse Monne-Corbero. “They were my neighbors, and they were nice people. I thought they were from Europe.’’

"Of course Russia is going to deny spying, just as Israel did in 2001 and in the AIPAC spy case. But the Israeli spies were actually caught spying, in possession of classified documents, feeding false information into the Pentagon, and dancing while the World Trade Towers fell. In contrast the accusations against the Russians are rather vague. We are told they were looking at gold trading, something that is actually legal to do.As I pointed out yesterday this story feels weird and it looks like Obama wanted to put Russia on the defensive, which means that whatever Obama and Medvedev talked about in their meeting, it did not go well for Obama. This is Obama's bitch-slap back at Medvedev!" -- Wake the Flock Up

WASHINGTON — President Obama declared yesterday that he and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia have “succeeded in resetting’’ the relationship between the former Cold War adversaries that had dipped to a dangerous low in recent years.

Obama directly acknowledged differences in some areas, such as Moscow’s tensions with neighboring Georgia, but said “we addressed those differences candidly.’’ And he announced that the United States and Russia had agreed to expand cooperation on intelligence and the counterterror fight and worked on strengthening economic ties between the nations.

Obama gave Russia perhaps the biggest gift it could have wanted from the meetings: an unqualified, hearty plug for Moscow’s ascension to the World Trade Organization. Russia has long wanted membership but US support in the past has come with conditions.

“Russia belongs in the WTO,’’ Obama said as the two leaders stood side-by-side in the East Room after several hours of meetings — including an impromptu trip to a burger joint for lunch.

The leaders faced questions about the US-led Afghanistan war, and Obama promised that the United States will “not miss a beat’’ because of the change in military command that he ordered on Wednesday. Obama accepted General Stanley McChrystal’s resignation and replaced him with his direct boss, General David Petraeus.

WASHINGTON — Russia will “always hate’’US missile defenses because it cannot match them, but that should not stand in the way of ratifying a new US-Russian nuclear arms treaty, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday.

What an asshole!

In blunt language, with the administration’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, sitting beside him, Gates told a Senate panel there is little prospect of Washington and Moscow seeing eye-to-eye on missile defense.

“There is no meeting of the minds on missile defense,’’ Gates said. “The Russians hate it. They’ve hated it since the late 1960s. They will always hate it, mostly because we’ll build it and they won’t.’’

I was told there was a deal.

Testifying together, Gates and Clinton sought to calm fears voiced by Senator John McCain about the arms treaty, dubbed New START, which includes language that the Arizona Republican said could limit future US missile defense options.

Clinton noted the Russian government’s statement that it reserves the right to withdraw from the New START treaty if it feels threatened by an expansion of American defenses against ballistic missiles.

“But that is not an agreed-upon view. That is not in the treaty,’’ Clinton told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It’s the equivalent of a press release, and we are not in any way bound by it.’’

Of course, if the Russians pull out it is a moot point.

Clinton and Gates, joined by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu, showed a united front in the administration’s push for Senate ratification. They argued that the pact, while not perfect, enhances US security without constraining the shape of its nuclear force.

“It does not infringe upon the flexibility we need to maintain our forces, including bombers, submarines, and missiles in the way that best serves our own national security interest,’’ Clinton said.

Gates and Mullen stressed that the treaty, if ratified, would not require the Pentagon to change the size of its nuclear arsenal for seven years. Even then, the changes would be relatively minor, he said.

For as long as seven years into the future the United States would keep 720 deployed weapons: 240 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (distributed among 14 submarines); 60 heavy bombers, and up to 420 single-warhead Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles at their current three US bases, Gates said.

And Iran can not have even one.

Mullen said military leaders feel strongly that the United States should use that seven-year interval to assess the global strategic environment before deciding how to drop to the 700-weapon limit called for in the treaty.

The arms treaty was signed in April by President Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, who is scheduled to visit the White House next week.

Gates also spoke pointedly of Russia’s conflicting interests regarding Iran. The subject arose when Senator Scott Brown, Republican of Massachusetts, told Gates he was troubled that France and Russia, by maintaining commercial relationships with Iran, were helping it circumvent international sanctions over its nuclear program.

Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, also held a hearing on the treaty yesterday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It was the eighth hearing on the treaty in the committee, which Kerry chairs, and featured Rose Gottemoeller, assistant secretary of state.

In what must be among the wildest speculations of the Obama Administration, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates sought to defend a massive US missile defense system in Europe by guessing that Iran might fire “scores or even hundreds of missiles” at Europe.

Neighboring countries suffered along with Paris commuters, as walkouts by drivers delayed or canceled trains from Italy and Switzerland. Some flights were dropped or delayed.

Boisterous crowds of protesters filled Marseille’s port and wide Paris avenues, as unions staged nearly 200 marches in several cities over a broad change to the money-losing pension system, part of efforts around Europe to cut back on growing public debts....

I'm SO ENVIOUS!

The ranks of demonstrators swelled in comparison with a similar protest May 27. The Interior Ministry put the number of protesters around France at 797,000 — double the number in May....

Demonstrating his concern about the state of public finances, Sarkozy is canceling the annual garden party for Bastille Day on July 14, citing the high cost of the glamorous event, an annual mainstay.

And he WOULD NOT WANT to be giving the French any IDEAS from the PAST!!!!

Yup.

France has one of Europe’s lowest retirement ages, allowing workers to retire at 60 in most sectors. The government says the change to the money-losing pension system is an obligation, given France’s burgeoning deficit and its aging population.

Sebastien Sihr, secretary general of the SNUipp union, called the change “a step backward.’’

“They are refusing to imagine other sources of funding,’’ he told the Associated Press at the Paris march, where a crowd of thousands whistled and cheered, waving red, white, and blue balloons under a hot sun....

PARIS — As Manuel Noriega went on trial in France for money laundering, the former Panamanian dictator was not allowed to wear his trademark military fatigues and appeared confused about the most basic of biographical information: his age.

Noriega, who is in his 70s, took the stand only briefly yesterday to give his name and age, but he appeared feeble, his shoulders trembling as he addressed the three-judge panel.

Noriega’s lawyers, meanwhile, complained about conditions in the prison where he is being held. The former military strongman, who spent 20 years in US custody for drug trafficking after being deposed in the 1989 invasion of his country, could return to prison for 10 years if he is convicted as charged in France.

That way he WILL NEVER TALK and even if he does, he crazy and senile now!

Noriega is not permitted to wear his military uniform in France because he is not considered a prisoner of war — an issue hotly contested by his lawyers.

The former dictator started his brief testimony yesterday with a stumble, when he was asked about discrepancies in his date of birth on different legal documents.

That is what YEARS of ISOLATION (itself a form of torture) will do to you.

Speaking through a translator, Noriega initially said Feb. 11, 1936, then immediately corrected himself, saying he was born in 1934.

Translation; He MADE a MISTAKE!!

There has long been confusion surrounding Noriega’s true date of birth.

Oh, that is true of all those cats down there.

Just look at a baseball roster sometime. Remember the Almonte kid that lied about his age and won the Little League World Series? Who is he pitching for now?

The French indictment says Noriega was born in 1938, although his legal team says he was born four years earlier. As a youth, he claimed to be older than he was to win a scholarship to a military academy in Peru, and his age remains in dispute.

Parliament will start discussing the proposed reforms today. Despite opposition from several of its own lawmakers, the center-left government — which holds a seven-seat majority in the 300-member house — is expected to win the final vote.

And you thought you were electing change!

Greece is caught in a major debt and deficit crisis. It only avoided bankruptcy last month after receiving the first installment of a $136 billion emergency loan package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. In return, Athens passed painful austerity measures, cutting pensions and salaries and raising consumer taxes.

Today’s strike will leave state hospitals with only emergency staff. Schools, tax offices, and municipal offices will close. There will be no news broadcasts, and no newspapers will be published tomorrow as the main journalists’ union has joined the strike.

"ATHENS, Greece — Dozens of masked youths clashed with police at a union protest Tuesday in Athens during the country's fifth general strike this year against the cash-strapped government's planned pension and labor reforms.

Riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse troublemakers who threw chunks of marble smashed off metro station entrances and set rubbish bins on fire. Running clashes continued along a major avenue — lined with shuttered shops and banks — as rioters armed with wooden clubs made repeated sallies against police....

WARNING for European visitors: European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent. As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.